Taking online surveys for money may seem like one of those too good to be true money making ideas.

But the truth of the matter is that market research studies or paid surveys (as they are known) conducted on the Internet provide priceless data and information to companies and manufacturers about their products and services, and how everyday consumers feel about them.

What are Online Surveys?

Basically, paid surveys, as explained here, are studies done by market research companies such as nielsen on behalf of manufacturers and businesses to gather information about how well certain products and services are doing.

Basically, as a survey panel member, you get invited to take part in simple online studies which will seek your answers and feedback regarding a product or service. And for your time and effort you are compensated with cash, gift certificate and a variety of other prizes and rewards.

How much money can I make?

Well, to be honest, just how much cash you can earn by filling out online surveys depends on a few things, which the most important one of those factors is how long the actual survey takes, and how important of a study it is.

Having said that, you can expect to earn anywhere from $1 to up to $75, and in some rare cases up to $200 or more per survey. An average survey takes around 15 minutes and pays an average of $5.

Participating in online surveys is really fun and exciting. And not only you get paid for commenting and giving your opinion, you also get to influence how current and future products are made.

That’s right, the whole idea behind market research studies is to find out what things consumers like you, like and dislike about certain products, what kind of improvements you would like to see, and what kind of products and services you would like to see in the market in the future.

What about all the scam talk?

The good news is that paid surveys are not scam, they are legit and an important element of how everyday items we use improve and get better. Unfortunately, many scammers have been taking advantage of the popularity of paid surveys, by ripping off people who are interested in taking part in paid market research studies. For example, Swagbucks is legit, but there are tons of other sites like it that are scams.

These scammers look and act like legit and paying paid surveys sites, but when it comes to paying their members, they take a wrong turn, and never actually pay their panelists.

Where can I find legit sites?

It’s important to remember that most paid survey companies are 100% free to join. But, with all the survey scams around, it gets hard and time consuming to find legitimate sites to earn money with. That’s what I am going to list some of the best survey sites below.

You can also use what I refer to as “survey banks”. These sites are not the actual paid survey companies themselves, meaning they do not conduct market research studies themselves, rather they are a directory of all legitimate paid surveys sites. So, once you register with them, you get access to a list of hundreds of high paying surveys you can join for free.

The advantage of using survey banks is that it can save you lots of time and perhaps money. Yes, you could spend hours on the internet researching and separating legit from scams and eventually you will have a list of few good surveys sites, but you will still wont be able to locate the majority of trusted survey companies.

So, by paying a small fee and joining survey banks you can get instant access to hundreds of legitimate companies that you can join for free to fill out simple online surveys and questioners.

With that said, here are some of the highest paying survey sites you can join free of charge. I will also list he biggest survey bank here.

Top 10 Paid Survey Sites

Ok, so this one is the survey bank I was talking about. The reason I listed this first is that 99% of the online surveys companies only accept members from the US and a few other western countries. But I know that not all of you guys live in those few countries. Thankfully, PaidSurveysAtHome list of paying survey sites includes survey companies that accept international members. So you can find sites that you can join even if you are not from the US, Canada, GB or Australia.

PaidSurveysAtHome is the most famous and biggest paid survey bank that has a list of over 200 legitimate market research companies. There are lots of PaidSurveysAtHome reviews out there and almost all of them do portray it as very trusted site.

They do require a small fee for gaining access to their list, but I personally think its well worth it. I mean you would have to spend weeks and months if you were to try to find every site on their list, on your own. No to mention, most of the listed sites there, would be almost impossible for you to find on the Internet as they are very exclusive.

The best thing is that they have a 30 day money back guaranty. So, if you for any reason don’t like the list of legit survey companies they give you, you can get your money back with no question asked.

Also known as Nielsen Homescan, The National Consumer Panel is regarded as one of the most advanced and influential market research companies. The cool thing about being a member of NCP is that you don’t actually fill out online surveys. Here is how it works:

Once you register, they are going to mail you a free hand-held scanner. Then, every time you or somebody else in your family shops, you would use this scanner to scan the bar code on the product. It’s as simple as that. This will let them know what and how often consumers are buying.

They will once in a while send you online or by mail questioners that regarding those purchases that you can participate in to earn even more cash.

NPD is truly one of the leading survey sites conducting studies since 1967. They cater to some of the biggest fortune 500 companies around the planet. You can get paid to participate in surveys about food, movies, clothing, music and lots of other things.

A great survey sites where you actually earn money by reviewing and trying different products. In a sense you get paid to test products you use in your every day life. You can earn from $5 to $75 per survey.

Another famous consumer market research company with thousands of panel members. Not only you earn real cash for taking surveys, you also get an entry to win $10,000 every day that you login to your account.

My favorite survey sites simply because their surveys are really fun and enjoyable to take. They are mostly about movies. So, you get to watch movie trailers and sometimes you get to evaluate trailers of movies that are not even out yet.

Yeah, it’s fun to be one of the few people who can actually see parts of a new movie that most people don’t even know exist yet. You can pocket an average of $5 per survey.

GlobalTestMarket is another very well-known survey company which is powered by Global Market Insite, Inc. For each survey you earn “Market Points”, and once you have 1000 points, you can redeem them for $50. An average 15 minutes survey pays around 200 Points.

Conclusion

There you have it, a list of real and paying survey companies that you can register with in order to get paid to take surveys.

Getting paid to text is one of those income opportunities that we all knew was coming. I mean, with smart phones and text messaging becoming a huge part of our daily lives, it was time for an smart entrepreneur to capitalize on this new phenomenon.